On board the Blue Panda, the WWF ambassador boat, to save the seas from plastic

Off the Camogliuntil today, July 12, is anchored there Blue Pandathe sailing boat ambassador of the WWF. For a week he freed the Ligurian seabed of theProtected area of ​​Portofino from some “ghost” tools and recovered the microplastic dispersed at sea.

The journey of the Blue Panda, this year, it left France and, passing through Camogli and Portofino, it will arrive first in Turkey and then in Spain. We followed it to discover the project’s initiatives in the Ligurian sea EcoeFISHent.

The danger of microplastics

Through the help of a fishing boat of Santa Margherita Ligure, the Blue Panda has collected, with a special fishing net called «manta ray“, several microplastics present in the surface waters of the Portofino area. The recovered material was then analyzed, on board the sailing boat, thanks to a microscope to see the pollutants present: many tiny, and harmful, spheres of plastic that hide among algae and small sea creatures.

I’m eleven million the tons of plastic waste that ends up in the oceans and beyond every year 700 species interested from pollution phenomena: not only fish and cetaceans, but also, indirectly, the man. And the danger is not found only in the waters. When plastic degrades in the sea it transforms into particles of less than half a centimeter: thus they end up in the water we drink and remain suspended in the air we breathe.

The recovery of the “ghost” tools

One of the dramas of the Italian seas is the abandonment of fishing gearcalled “ghost“. Thanks to the role of the Portofino Marine Protected Area and the divers of Reef Alert Networkwe were able to witness the recovery of waste material, which ends up on the seabed: lines, fishing objects, tools of the various boats. The divers dived to over fifty meters to retrieve the ghost gear and the long lines of fishing line that get entangled in the gorgonians, a coral species that populates the Ligurian seabed. It is estimated that every minute around the world a ton of phantom gear is accidentally lost or abandoned at sea.

After the cleaning and recovery operations, the Blue Panda returns to the harbor in the Camogli pier. The goal, throughout his journey, will be to bring visibility and accelerate the achievement of the ambitious project 30by30that is to say effectively protect at least 30% of the Mediterranean by 2030.